Washing up liquid and new strings

[Witters]

Who’da thunk it?  Washing up liquid cleans ink stains from the bare wood of my acoustic teaching instrument!  Ok, it’s an acoustic guitar so it’s doesnt count here, but I was impressed!  It has been restrung after too many school kids got their sweaty inky hands on it. Horrible creatures.

I have also restrung the six string bass with d’addario xl 32-135 nickel wounds.  I’m keen to hear what you guys use on such a beast.  It is intended for non-student action (its mine, hands off, get your own.....are your hands clean? No? Wash them, then you can have a go....did you use soap? No? Go back, do it properly).

I would like to use it for solo pieces.  Any thoughts?

My jazz copy will be getting some D’addario NYXLs tomorrow.  Also, new strings to me.  Life is exciting here.

[TheGreek]

Isn't that an old solution (no pun intended) to cleaning the gunk off fretboards too? 

[Witters]

I have no idea!  Don’t see why it wouldn’t work?  Maybe I’ll give it a go next time, thanks.

[ambient]

Cleaning the strings with it?

Won’t it clog up the windings? I know it blocks up the squirter things on a car windscreen.

[Witters]

Cleaning the woody bits, fingerboard etc.  What strings do you use on your six, ambient?

[Norris]

2 minutes ago, ambient said:

Cleaning the strings with it?

Won’t it clog up the windings? I know it blocks up the squirter things on a car windscreen.

I thought you were cleaning strings with washing up liquid too I  wouldn't recommend that due to the very high levels of salt in it.

I'd scrape the worst crud off with an old credit card or similar (something softer than the wood) then use a slightly damp cloth

[Dad3353]

28 minutes ago, ambient said:

...I know it blocks up the squirter things on a car windscreen.

Maybe if used 'neat', but a squirt of the stuff when filling the bottle makes the washers much more efficient than just plain water, and is much less expensive than dedicated washer fluid. 

[ambient]

43 minutes ago, Witters said:

Cleaning the woody bits, fingerboard etc.  What strings do you use on your six, ambient?

Ah right. I use D’Addario XL.

[Bolo]

7 hours ago, Dad3353 said:

Maybe if used 'neat', but a squirt of the stuff when filling the bottle makes the washers much more efficient than just plain water, and is much less expensive than dedicated washer fluid. 

Add a squirt of cleaning alcohol too, leave no stripes.

[Newfoundfreedom]

A guitarist friend of mine told me when he was younger and couldn't afford to buy new strings he used to put his old ones in boiling water and they were good as new. I'd never heard of this before. Anyone else? 

[BreadBin]

7 minutes ago, Newfoundfreedom said:

A guitarist friend of mine told me when he was younger and couldn't afford to buy new strings he used to put his old ones in boiling water and they were good as new. I'd never heard of this before. Anyone else? 

They will get back a bit of top end but the only times I have ever snapped strings has been after boiling.

Many years ago when I was young and poor.

[ambient]

9 minutes ago, Newfoundfreedom said:

A guitarist friend of mine told me when he was younger and couldn't afford to buy new strings he used to put his old ones in boiling water and they were good as new. I'd never heard of this before. Anyone else? 

There are lots of threads about this.

My personal thoughts are that it might clean the accumulations of sweat and grease, but won't repair any physical damage to the string i.e. from where they been in contact with the frets, also the core of the string is usually made from steel which rusts. Any improvement is generally very short lived, and gets shorter each time.

I think it's just best to keep your hands clean and wipe the strings over with a nice dry, lint free cloth.